Motorcycle - Bajaj Auto Essay Example for Free

Motorcycle Bajaj Auto Essay The research project was undertaken to study the consumer preferences towards 150 cc motorcycles in Ludhiana city. Consumer is said to be the pivot around which the entire business activities revolve and thus it is necessary to know that how individuals make decisions. Primary data were collected from a sample of 120 respondents which was taken from the service centers of the motorcycle outlets. The factors leading to need arousal for 150 cc motorcycles were identified as availability of better pick up and elegant appearance. The main source of information about the motorcycle has been the media both print and electronic. The  decision to purchase a particular brand of motorcycle was mostly made by the customer himself. The important factors considered while purchasing a motorcycle were pick up, styling and fuel efficiency. Bajaj Pulsar provides highest satisfaction in case of pick up, comfort, after sales service and maintenance cost whereas TVS Apache provides highest satisfaction in case of appearance/design and mileage. 2 CERTIFICATE Certified that this project report â€Å"STUDY OF CONSUMER PREFERENCES TOWARDS 150CC MOTORCYCLES IN LUDHIANA CITY† is the bonafide work of â€Å" HARPINDER SINGH†. Who carried out the project work under my supervision. (Dr.MEENAL CHAUHAN) 3 CONTENTS Chapter Topic Page I INTRODUCTION 5 II REVIEW OF LITERATURE 13 III OBJECTIVES OF STUDY 17 IV RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 18 ANALYSIS FINDINGS LIMITATIONS 20 48 49 V SUMMARY 50 ANNEXURES 53 REFERNCES 56 4 CHAPTER -1 INTRODUCTION Customers today are more informed and demanding than ever. They know quality service, when they get it and they are not afraid of taking their business elsewhere if they don’t get it. Refusals to acknowledge this reality can spell failure/rejection by the one who holds the purse strings and the key to profits. Satisfaction of customer needs, in fact, provides a rationale for the firm’s  existence. Therefore customer behavior lies at the heart of modern marketing and its knowledge is vital for a firm’s existence, growth and success. An understanding of the motives underlying the consumer behaviour helps a firm to seek better and more effective way to satisfy customers. Consumer behaviour is the behaviour that a consumer displays in searching for; purchasing, using, evaluating and disposing of products and services that he expects will satisfy his needs. It helps marketers know that how an individual makes decision to spend his available resources (money, time, and effort) on consumption related items. However consumer behavior is a complex system where there is an interaction of various social, economic and psychological factors. All these factors affect the purchase decision of the buyer and his perception about different products. Purchase behaviour involves two types of purchases: trial purchases (the exploratory phase in which consumer attempts to evaluate a product through direct use) and repeat purchases which usually signify that the product meets with consumer’s approval and that the consumer is willing to use it again. Moreover, purchase behaviour incorporates all the activities that human being  indulges in his role of consumer, from the time when he feels a state of deprivation (need arousal) to that point of time when he obtains a means of need satisfaction 5 (purchase) and finally to the point of time when he has used this means for a suitability long period of time to judge the level of satisfaction it provides (post purchase evaluation). Satisfaction of consumer needs is one of the main objectives of manufacturers and marketers. The company that really understands how the customer responds to different product features, prices and advertising appeals has an enormous advantage over its competitors. In today’s era of competition, a stage has reached that it is necessary to know the perceptions, needs and preferences of the target market and to incorporate the desired features in the product to be sold to the consumer. Although, it is not easy to say which customer will go for which features of the product, yet marketers do make efforts to know the features for which most of the people of a particular segment of society look for. A successful marketer is the one who effectively develops and produces brands that are of value to the consumer and who effectively presents these products and brands to the consumer in an  appealing and persuasive way. The need to travel is as old as man himself. As the requirement for basic personal transportation came to the forefront, two wheelers came into picture. In the past, selling a scooter was not a problem for their manufactures. Consumer’s choice was limited and the demarcation clear, but as more and more companies jumped into fray and churned out quite a number of models, the consumer who till now didn’t have much of a choice, became demanding and knowledgeable. Thus it became necessary for the producers and sellers to understand the perception,  attitudes and preferences of their target markets and to load their scooters with features that added value to the product. Scooter as a product falls in the category of consumer durables i. e. it serves many uses, requires more personal selling, service and sellers guarantee as compared to consumer non-durables. In today’s society there is sufficient 6 disposable/discretionary income with large number of people to be in the market for a durable at one time or the other. Also, the consumer attitudes have changed and awareness has grown due to communication explosion. Today, two wheeler industry caters to the changing demands of the  consumers. The consumer’s decision to purchase or reject a product is the moment of final truth for the marketer. Consumer is hard to please and very discriminating. He is very judicious in making choices. The purchase of any product by him depends on the value of product to him. 1. 1 Two Wheeler Industry Automobile industry, as a whole contributes a significant chunk in the gross national income of the country. Faced with a public transport system, which is woefully inadequate, inefficient and undependable, the Indian customer is being increasingly forced to personal means of transportation. Private cars are ruled out for general public because of their high cost of operation and maintenance; bicycles have the disadvantage of being slow and having low load bearing capacity, hence two wheelers have been the choice of middle class families because of their comparatively low price, low running cost and easy parking ability. The two wheeler industry has shown a steep growth in the recent years, even The two wheelers have moved out of the realms of the college going student and entered the corporate offices also. With the ever-increasing prices of fuel, two wheelers offer a cheaper option than the four wheelers. The two wheelers have also emerged as a viable option to take pressure off the public transport system, which has been dwindling with every passing day. For ages Indian buyer had limited choice as one had to wait for several months to get a Bajaj scooter, however today the scenario has changed with over 50 models available to the Indian consumer. These models keep every need of the Indian consumer in mind. 7 Table1:MarketShares(09-10) Scooters % Market share Honda MSI 62. 8 TVS 28. 0 Bajaj 2. 5 Kinetic 6. 7 Motorcycles % Market share Hero Honda 45. 8 Bajaj 32. 4 TVS 14. 9 Yamaha 3. 8 Honda MSI 1. 8 LML Kinetic 0. 1 Royal Enfield 0. 4 Majestic Suzuki Motorcycle India 0. 7 Mopeds % Market share TVS 92. 6 Majestic 2. 0 Kinetic 5. 4 Source: Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) 1. 1. 1 Production of Two Wheelers The production of two wheelers has merely reflected the way the market has developed over the recent years. Here is a brief look about the production trend of two wheelers including scooters, motorcycles and mopeds in the country based on the data provided by Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM). 8 Table 2: Productions of Two Wheelers (Figures in 000) Year Scooters Motorcycles Mopeds Total 2005-06 938 2906 427 4271 2006-07 848 3876 352 5076 2007-08 935 4355 332 5623 2008-09 987 5194 348 6530 2009-10 1020 6201 380 7601 Source: Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) (2009-10) Table 1. 2 shows that production for two wheelers have increased for the last five years. The two wheeler industry has experienced an accelerating thrust for the last 5 years. As table shows production of two wheelers which was 42. 71 lakhs in 2005-06 has increased to 76. 01 lakhs in 2009-10. 1. 2 THE MOTORCYCLE INDUSTRY BOOM The Indian two wheeler industry has been undergoing a massive change. The population explosion, the transition from scooters to motorcycles, from 2-stroke engines to 4-stroke, from smaller engines to bigger ones everything seems to be happening at the same time. The growth of the segment has been significant in the last 10 years particularly when the consumer preference has shifted from scooters to motorcycles and from 2-stroke to 4-stroke engines. 9 All this has been an outcome of a steady rise in the level of individual income, a change in the mind-set brought about by the spread of education and pervasiveness of media, a growing need for personalized transport among the  members of all age-groups, etc. No more is a vehicle treated as just a commodity but has become an integral part of ones personality. It is then only natural that everything else associated with this industry should change too. The demand for motorcycles has been influenced by a number of factors over the past five years. The key demand drivers for the growth of the motorcycle industry are as follows:Inadequate public transportation system, especially in the semi-urban and rural areas; Increased availability of cheap consumer financing in the past 3-4 years; Increasing availability of fuel-efficient and low-maintenance models. Increasing urbanization, which creates a need for personal transportation Changes in the demographic profile; Difference between two wheeler and passenger car prices, which makes two wheelers the entry-level vehicle; Steady increase in per capita income over the past five years; and Increasing number of models with different features to satisfy diverse consumer needs. The Indian two wheeler industry has undergone a significant change over the past 10 years with the preference changing from scooters and mopeds to motorcycles. The scooters segment was the largest till FY1998, accounting for  around 42% of the two wheeler sales (motorcycles and mopeds accounted for 37% and 21 % of the market respectively, that year). However, the motorcycles segment that had witnessed high growth (since FY1994) became larger than the scooter 10 segment in terms of market share for the first time in FY1999. Between FY1996 and 9MFY2009, the motorcycles segment more than doubled its share of the two wheeler industry to 79% even as the market shares of scooters and mopeds stood lower at 16% and 5%, respectively. While scooter sales declined sharply by 28% in FY2005, motorcycle sales reported a healthy growth of 20%, indicating a clear  shift in consumer preference. This shift, which continues, has been prompted by two major factors: change in the countrys demographic profile, and technological advancements. In an effort to satisfy the distinct needs of consumers, producers are identifying emerging consumer preferences and developing new models. For instance, motorcycles with engine capacity over 150 cc, is a segment that has witnessed significant new product launches and hence, become more competitive. The indigenously launched Pulsar 150 had met with success on its launch and thereafter, a host of models have been launched in this segment by various players. While Bajaj Auto launched the Pulsar (150 and 180 cc) with digital twin spark technology (DTSi) that offers a powerful engine and fuel efficiency of 125 cc models, model launches by other players include LMLs Graptor/Beamer, HMSIs Unicorn besides the HHMLs CBZ (improved version launched in 2007-08) and TVS Fiero F2. The products in this segment cater for style conscious consumers. Quite a few players are developing models combining features such as higher engine capacity with optimum mix of power and performance, and superior styling. However, the extent of shift to these products would depend on the  positioning of such products in terms of price. 1. 3Need of the study 11 The study makes significant contributions to consumer preferences concerned with 150 cc motorcycles. Various attributes, affecting purchase of 150 cc motorcycles have been identified and the existing prominent brands of 150 cc motorcycles have been compared on the basis of various attributes. These findings will be useful for both students as well as teachers of the subject. The study will have great implications from marketer’s point of view in sales strategy formulation. Knowledge of the factors, considered important by the consumer would be helpful to the marketers for adopting more efficient manufacturing tools. | Analysis of the post purchase feelings of 150 cc motorcycles respondents and the interpretations thereof, together with the findings of the factors determining the brand preferences can be helpful to both manufacturers as well as dealers of 150 cc motorcycles thereby enabling them to meet the requirements of the market more effectively and efficiently. CHAPTER-2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE A brief review of the literature is of immense importance with respect to any research. It is essential for understanding the scope and spectrum of research  objectives. Various aspects of consumer preference like consumer satisfaction, impact of various attributes on purchase behavior, consumer perception, and consumer dissatisfaction are measured. 12 . Dhar and Sherman (1996) examined the effect of common and unique features in consumer choice. They said that consumer choice often involved a comparison among the available alternatives. It was proposed that attractiveness of the choice set could be enhanced or reduced by altering features, which appeared unique. Chernev (1997) examined the effect of common features on brand choice and moderating role of attribute importance. It was argued that when brand attributes differed in importance, common features were likely to enhance consumer preferences for the option with the best value on the most important attribute, thus further polarizing brands’ choice shares. In contrast when attributes were similar in importance, common features were likely to have an opposite effect, equalizing brand shares. Thus, when attributes had equal importance, adding a common feature to a pair of options leads to an equalization of choice shares, whereas, when attributes differed in importance, common features  enhanced the choice share of the option with the best value on the most important attribute, leading to a further polarization of brands’ choice shares. Dhar et al (1999) suggested that the construction of both similarity and preference judgments could be captured by a feature-matching model that allowed for shifts in the relative weights assigned to the various features of the alternatives being compared. An application of this model was that engaging in one comparative process (e. g. , similarity) can influence the relative weight assigned to the features that were considered in a second comparative judgment (e. g. , preference). The effect of engaging in an initial comparison task on subsequent 13 preference judgments was tested for stimulus-based choice sets. The results on choice deferral and choice satisfaction were consistent with the notion that engaging in similarity/dissimilarity comparisons altered the relative weight assigned to common and unique features for the two alternatives. Heilman et al (2000) examined how brand preferences and response to marketing activity evolved for consumers new to a market. They developed a theoretical framework that began with a consumer’s first-ever purchase in a  product category and described subsequent purchases as components of sequential stages. The theory was based on the notion that choices made by the consumer new to a market were driven by two competing forces: consumers’ desire to collect information about alternatives and their aversion to trying risky ones. The results showed the importance of accounting for product experience and learning when studying the dynamic choice processes of consumers new to a market. Ofir and Simonson (2001) in their study found that the customer evaluations of quality and satisfaction were critical inputs in development of marketing strategies. Given the increasingly common practice of asking such evaluations, buyers of products and services often knew in advance that they subsequently would be asked to provide their evaluations. In a series of field and laboratory studies, the author demonstrated that expecting to be evaluated leads to less favorable quality and satisfaction evaluations and reduces customer’s willingness to purchase and recommend the evaluated services. The negative bias of expected evaluations was observed when actual quality was either low or high, and it persisted even when buyers were told explicitly to consider both the positive  and negative aspects. Tamizhselvan and Vijayakumar (2002) analyzed the significance of personal characteristics of consumers in determining the brand preference for soft 14 drinks in Coimbatore district. The study also identified the factors considered important in buying behavior, the reasons of brand preferred by the consumers and the factors considered in the frequency of buying. It was concluded that the personal characteristics like sex, age, marital status, occupation, monthly income and expenditure, type of family and size of family had a significant influence on brand preference and buying behavior of the consumers. Bhattacharya and Sen (2003) tried to determine why and under what conditions consumers entered into strong, committed and meaningful relationships with certain companies, became champions of these companies and their products. The authors proposed that strong consumer-company relationships often resulted from consumers’ identification with those companies, which helped them to satisfy one or more important self-definitional needs. Aggarwal (2005) stated that when consumers formed relationships with brands, they use norms of interpersonal relationships as a guide in their brand assessments. Two relationship types were examined: exchange relationships in which benefits were given to others to get something back and communal relationships in which benefits were given to show concern for other’s needs. The conceptual model proposed that an adherence to or a violation of these relationship norms influenced the appraisal of the specific marketing action and also the overall brand evaluations. Erdem and Swait (2006) examined the role of brand credibility (trustworthiness and expertise) on brand choice and consideration across multiple product categories that vary in regard potential uncertainty about attributes and  associated information acquisition costs and perceived risks of consumption. It was found that brand credibility increased probability of inclusion of a brand in the consideration set, as well as brand choice conditional on consideration. It was also 15 found that although credibility impacts brand choice and consideration set formation more and through more constructs in contexts with high uncertainty and sensitivity to such uncertainty, credibility effects were present in all categories. Finally, the results indicated that trustworthiness, rather than expertise, affected consumer choice and brand consideration more. Simonson (2007) examined the basic assumptions underlying individual marketing and presented a process model of customers’ responses to customized offers. The model addressed (1) preference development (2) evaluation of customized offers (3) likelihood of purchasing the customized offers and (4) maintenance of relationships with one-to-one marketers. The analysis leaded to specific propositions regarding determinants of customers’ responses to customized offers. The author also discussed future research directions and managerial implications. It can be concluded that many studies have been done to study the various  factors related to impact of various attributes on purchase behavior, consumer perception, customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction, etc. A study is required to identify the attributes considered while purchasing and compare selected brands on basis of these attributes. CHAPTER-3 OBJECTIVES OF STUDY:- The present study aims at evaluating factors of 150 cc motorcycles affecting their purchase and on the basis of these factors to give suggestions to the brands to 16 improve the market share of their respective products. More specifically, objectives of study are: 1. To identify the attributes considered while purchasing the selected brands of  150 cc motorcycles. 2. To compare selected brands of 150 cc motorcycles on basis of attributes. 3. To study the consumer preferences towards the 150 cc Motor Cycles. 4. To study the factors that influences the purchase of 150 cc motorcycle. 5. To determine the need of purchase of 150 cc motorcycle CHAPTER 4 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY :- MATERIALS AND METHODS The present chapter describes the research methodology of the study. In order to satisfy the objectives, this chapter explains in detail the research methodology which is divided into five sections: Section 4. 1 deals with research framework; Section 4. 2 deals with population and sample selection; Section 4. 3 17 deals with data collection; Section 4. 4 deals with analysis of data and Section 4. 5 deals with limitations of the study. 4. 1 Research Framework The present study is based on the objectives of identifying the attributes considered while purchasing the selected brands of 150 cc motorcycles and to compare selected brands of 150 cc motorcycles on basis of these attributes in the city of Ludhiana. The study uses both primary and secondary information. The research design for the present study is descriptive. The motorcycles available for  the study are Bajaj Pulsar, Hero Honda CBZ, Honda Unicorn and TVS Apache. As it is clear from the objectives of the study, the study was divided into two parts i. e. to identify the attributes considered while purchasing the selected brands of 150 cc motorcycles and then to compare selected brands of 150 cc motorcycles on basis of these attributes. For both the objectives of the study, primary data was collected through a structured questionnaire. Then in order to arrive at the results proper statistical tools were used on the information collected from the respondents. 4. 2 Population and Sample Selection. ThepopulationofthestudyincludesthepersonsinLudhianacitywho owned a 150 cc motorcycle. For meeting the first objective, list of dealers dealing in 150 cc motorcycles in Ludhiana was prepared. Sample was collected in two stages. In the first stage, two dealers each of the four companies in the city were selected randomly from the available list of dealers for four companies. In the second stage of sample selection, service centers of each of the selected dealers 18 were visited. At each service center, 15 respondents were contacted. The sample size was 120. The following dealers were selected: 1. Bajaj Pulsar. ?Dada Bajaj, Savitiri Complex, Dholewal Chowk, Ludhiana ?Impact Bajaj, Sherpur Chowk, GT Road By Pass, Ludhiana 2. Hero Honda CBZ/Achiver ?Nihal Singh Motors, Ferozepur Road, Ludhiana ?Stan Wheels (P) Ltd. , G T Road, Near Sherpur Chowk, Ludhiana 3. TVS Apache ?Gulzar Trading Company, Dholewal, Ludhiana ?TVS Gulzar, Near Aarti Chowk, Ludhiana 4. Honda Unicorn ?Sarvpriya Autos Pvt. Ltd. , Ferozepur Road, Ludhiana ?Pioneer Honda, G T Road, Dholewal, Ludhiana 4. 3 Data Collection Keeping in view the objectives of this study, both primary and secondary data were required. A structured and non-disguised questionnaire was prepared for  collecting primary information from the customers. Questionnaire is shown in Annexure-I. Questions were asked relating to their income, occupation, about factors which were considered by the respondents while purchasing a motor bike, 19 about factors influencing them to purchase, rating of different brands of 150 cc motorcycles and satisfaction level from the various motorcycles. The questions asked were multiple choice and open ended. Five points scale was used. For classification of attributes the following points were used: most important (MI), important (I), neutral (N), unimportant (UI) and most unimportant (M. U. I). Secondary data was collected from various journals /magazines, websites and dealers regarding the market performance of these motorcycles. 4. 4 Data Analysis The data collected with the help of questionnaires were analyzed with the help of percentages, means, weighted mean scores etc. In order to find importance given to various attributes of a 150 cc motorcycles by the buyer at the time of purchase, weighted mean scores were calculated and each attribute was ranked on the basis of weighted mean scores. Mean score was calculated for the questions asked on a 5-point scale. In the  5-point scale the respondents were asked to indicate their degree of importance they showed for various attributes related to the 150 cc motorcycles from most important to most unimportant. Scores were assigned from 1 to 5 for the degree of importance (1 for most important, 2 for important, 3 for neutral, 4 for unimportant and 5 for most unimportant). Frequencies were multiplied with their respective weights and aggregate values were found out. Mean score was calculated using the formula: Mean score = ? wifn/n i = 1 to 5 n = 30 for each brand respondents 20 where, wi = Weight attached for degree of importance  fn = Associated frequency n = Number of respondents. If the mean score was more than the middle point of the scale, it was concluded that the respondents by and large tend to agree with the statement. 21 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION This chapter contains the results and discussion of the primary data collected from the respondents. The study is conducted to identify the attributes considered while purchasing the selected brands of 150 cc motorcycles and to compare selected brands of 150 cc motorcycles on basis of these attributes. This chapter is divided into four sections: Section 4. 4. 1 deals with demographic profile of the respondents; Section 4. 4. 2 deals with identification of the attributes considered while purchasing the selected brands of 150 cc motorcycles; Section 4. 4. 3 deals with Satisfaction from selected brands of 150 cc motorcycles on the basis of various attributes. 4. 4. 1 Demographic profile of the respondents The demographic profile of the respondents has been classified on the basis of age, occupation, education and family income. 4. 4. 1. 1 Classification on the basis of age Age of a person is considered as an important factor in decision making and choice made by the person. The respondents were classified into four different age groups. The age classification of the respondents is given in Table 4. 4. 1. 1 22 Table 4. 4. 1. 1: Age wise distribution of respondents Age Bajaj Pulsar Hero Honda CBZ TVS Apache Honda Unicorn Total Below 25 14 11 15 13 53 25-35 13 13 11 10 47 35-45 3 6 4 5 18 Above 45 0 0 0 2 2 Total 30 30 30 30 120 14 13 3 0 11 13 6 0 15 11 4 0 13 10 5 2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 Bajaj Pulsar Hero Honda CBZ /Ach iever TVS Apache Honda Unicorn Age wise distribution of respondents Below 25 25-35 35-45 Above 45. ANALYSIS INTERPRETATION: On the overall most of the respondents i.e. 53 were below the age of 25 and about 47 in the age group of 25-35 and rest above 35. If we analyze for each motorcycle separately, it was seen that around 75% of motorcycle users in case of Bajaj Pulsar and Hero Honda CBZ and around 70% in case of Honda Unicorn and TVS Apache were below the age of 30 which eventually means that a major chunk of the motorcycle market includes youth only. 23 4. 4. 1. 2 Classification on the basis of occupation The respondents were surveyed about their occupation as it plays an important role in the purchase behaviour and affects consumer’s preferences. The  classification according to occupation is shown in Table 4. 4. 1. 2. Table 4. 4. 1. 2: Occupation wise distribution of respondents Occupation category Bajaj Pulsar Hero Honda CBZ TVS Apache Honda Unicorn Total Student 20 19 21 17 77 Business 6 6 6 7 25 Profession 3 4 3 6 16 Others 1 1 0 0 2 Total 30 30 30 30 120 ANALYSIS INTERPRETATION: 24 As regards the occupation profile of the 150 cc motorcycle owners, there was not much difference between the four motorcycles. The student community dominates in all the four brands (about 70%), while the ratio business to profession is around 2:1 on average. 4. 4. 1. 3 Classification on the basis of education level The educational qualification also effects the behavior of a person as it shows how informed a choice was made while buying something. Also it is generally assumed that qualification is directly related to the kind of job a person is engaged in. Therefore, the respondents were classified according to educational qualifications in Table 4. 4. 1. 3. Table 4. 4. 1. 3: Education wise distribution of respondents EDUCATION Bajaj Pulsar Hero Honda CBZ TVS Apache Honda Unicorn Total Under-Gradua te 16 20 18 15 69 Graduate 7 4 6 7 24 Post-graduate 4 2 3 4 13. Professional 3 4 3 4 14 TOTAL 30 30 30 30 120 25 16 7 4 3 20 4 2 4 18 6 3 3 15 7 4 4 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 Bajaj Pulsar Hero Honda CBZ/ Achiever TVS Apache Honda Unicorn Education wise distribution of respondents Under-Graduate Graduate Post-graduate Professional ANALYSIS INTERPRETATION: As regards to education characteristic, it is seen that most of the respondents are either undergraduates or graduates. This fact is in conjunction with the fact that a major chunk of 150 cc motorcycle owners belong to the age group of below 25 and are mostly students 4. 4. 1. 4. Classification on the basis of family income. One of the most important factors influencing the consumer preferences is the income of the respondents. The income determines the choice of a respondent particularly in brand selection and the brand personality that a person associates 26 with himself. The classification of respondents according to their family income is given in table 4. 4. 1. Table 4. 4. 1. 4: Income wise distribution of respondents Family Income Bajaj Pulsar Hero Honda CBZ TVS Apache Honda Unicorn TOTAL Below 1,50,000 3 2 2 3 10 1,50,000-2,00 ,000 9 9 10 8 36 2,00,000-2,50 ,000 14 13 10 13 50 Above 2,50,000 4 6 8 6 24 27 3 9. 14 4 2 9 13 6 2 10 10 8 3 8 13 6 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 Bajaj Pulsar Hero Honda CBZ/ Achiever TVS Apache Honda Unicorn Income wise distribution of respondents Below 1,50,000 1,50,000-2,00,000 2,00,000-2,50,000 Above 2,50,000 ANALYSIS INTERPRETATION: The maximum percentage of respondents (around 60%) are in the higher income groups i. e. above 2,00,000, about 30% of the respondents fall in 150000-200000, nearly 42% in 200000-250000 , and the highest income group above 2,50,000 accounts for about 1/5th of the respondents . 28 4. 4. 2 Identification of the attributes considered while purchasing the  selected brands of 150 cc motorcycles. This section deals with identification of the various factors, affecting preferences of the 150 cc motorcycle respondents. Preferences of respondents were identified by studying the various attributes of 150 cc motorcycle, which affected the purchase decision of the respondents and also by studying the post purchase satisfaction of the 150 cc motorcycle respondents. The decision to buy any product is influenced by a number of factors. The factors might be those, arousing need for the 150 cc motorcycle. Various influencers might have affected the purchase decision of resp.

Implementing A Mandatory Recycling Program

Implementing A Mandatory Recycling Program In a world where global warming and going green are common terms in the English language, it can sometimes be difficult to decipher what it all means and just what the individual can do to help. Recycling is a major issue today and though there is controversy about whether it is necessary and how necessary it may be, implementing a mandatory recycling program is imperative for the environment and the people that live in it. Recycling comes with many benefits and prevents problems such as pollution and habitat destruction. Currently, our recycling programs are poor, and in order to improve them, a mandatory measure needs to be taken. Some oppose to it because they claim that it is expensive, ineffective, not as environmentally sound as other options, and does not provide the job opportunities needed. All of these oppositions are not valid or strong arguments and will be proved wrong. Recycling is necessary to the earth and its inhabitants. Recycling can be defined as reprocessing discarded solid materials into new, useful products.  [1]  It can reduce water pollution which would then protect species and reduce habitat destruction. Recycling reduces air pollution as well which would then reduce the effects or process of global warming. Further, it reduces solid waste disposal as well as energy demand which make fuel supplies last longer. Creating a program to require recycling from everyone would clearly benefit a variety of environmental processes. Individual households as well as workplaces produce five major types of materials that can be recycled. This includes paper products, glass, aluminum, steel, and some plastic. In order to understand the benefits of a mandatory program, the two ways recyclable materials can be reprocessed need to be addressed. The first way is called primary or closed loop recycling. This is where waste is recycled into new products of the same type. For example, a newspaper is recycled b ack into a new newspaper. The second way is called secondary recycling or downcycling. This is where waste materials are converted into different products. For example, a newspaper is recycled into cellulose insulation. There are two different types of wastes that can be recycled; preconsumer and postconsumer waste. Preconsumer waste is generated in a manufacturing process and recycled instead of being discarded. Postconsumer waste is generated by the consumers use of the product. Both types are equally important to be recycled. Theoretically, anything can be recycled but it comes down to two important things. These two things are important in deciding how the mandatory program will work successfully. The first question that needs to be addressed is will the item be recycled? In the process of separating the wastes collected for recycling, some of it gets mixed with other wastes and sent to landfills or incinerated. Secondly, will consumers actually purchase the recycled products an d complete the cycle to make it profitable? In aid to a mandatory program, it would help if the government required a label that indicated how much of the product contained recycled material.1  [2]   Our recycling rates are poor, and seem even worse when comparing them to the rates of other developed nations. Both Switzerland and Japan recycle about half of their municipal solid waste or MSW, while the United States only recycles about thirty percent of its MSW. With a mandatory recycling program, studies show that the US and other developed countries could recycle sixty to eighty percent of their MSW. Some believe that we do not have a problem with our waste management. If the previous percentages were not enough, then the following statistics are more than convincing. The United States wastes enough aluminum to rebuild the countrys entire airline fleet every three months; enough tires each year to encircle the planet almost three times; about 2.5 million nonreturnable plastic bottles every hour; enough office paper each year to build a wall eleven feet high across the country from New York City to San Francisco.1  [3]  Clearly, wasting what could be recycled is a big issue in America. Requiring citizens to recycle would help reduce the severity of these waste problems. Now that the different types of recycling and the magnitude of the recycling problem has been outlined, claims to why we should not implement a program can be easily, successfully, and intelligently declined. It is argued that recycling is more expensive than trash collection and disposal. However, when designed right, recycling programs are cost-competitive with trash collection and disposal.2 When comparing costs of both methods, the cost of curbside recycling is usually compared with the cost of conventional disposal alone. The fallacy here is that with recycling, the costs of collection and disposal are displaced. Instead of this comparison, the average cost of collection and disposal should be compared with the overall average cost of collection and recovery. Through this comparison, the costs are very impressive.2 Additionally, the United States spends five-hundred million dollars a year on picking up litter.1 Mandatory programs would lower this number significantly. It has been found to be true that recycling is expensive in some communities. However, it needs to be noted again that when done correctly, it is much cheaper. Recycling costs less than traditional trash collection and disposal when communities achieve high levels of recycling.2 The communities that the data is reflecting an expensive program are still recycling at very low rates and are treating recycling as an add-on to their traditional trash system rather than as a replacement for it.2 This is often the problem when critics are evaluating the costs of a program. They often treat it as an add-on cost, and [it is] therefore expensive. 2 Baltimore Maryland is a great example of how you should transition into the program. They use the same trucks to collect recyclables as they do trash, separately and at different times. By doing this, Baltimore made their upfront costs minimal and created no increase in their solid waste budget.2  [4]  The economics of the entire situation improves when recycling is not an add-on to trash disposal, but it is integrated into the process. It is falsely assumed that we can only recycle twenty-five to thirty percent of our waste. This number was considered a maximum in 1985, however today it should be considered a minimum and a much higher percentage is achievable.2 Currently the US does only recycle about thirty percent of its MSW. Because of these two statistics, those opposed to the program often think of this percentage as a cap. However, this is untrue. Although the amount of solid waste generated has leveled off individually, it has continued to increase on a national scale and there is therefore more potential waste to be recycled. Rates of what is being recycled have increased dramatically since the 1980s and early 1990s. The growth of the recycling programs is especially responsible for the increase. A dozen states are recycling about thirty percent or more of their MSW, but among those states communities are recycling up to fifty percent.2 These numbers are much higher in these communities and are continuing t o grow because of aspects of programs they have implemented. They have put into effect waste prevention strategies, convenient services such as curbside and drop-off, economic incentives, and resident participation. If all of these strategies and more were implemented on a federal level to require a recycling program, all of our statistics would improve. 2 The third argument that those against recycling programs use is that landfills and incinerators are more cost effective and environmentally sound.2 However the truth of the matter is again, when designed correctly, recycling programs are cost competitive with their competition. Further, recycling programs provide pollution prevention benefits. When recycling, the pollution normally generated from landfilling and incinerating materials is avoided, and the environmental burden of extracting virgin materials and the manufacturing process is reduced.2  [5]  Even with low landfill tipping fees, it is still the preferable option to recycle. Currently, twenty two states have less than ten years of landfill capacity left.2 Some southern states even have as low as five years. Now, why is this important to know? We need to look towards the future. The new landfills that would need to be created could cost much more than the ones that are here today.2 Recently, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), has issued that municipal landfills must install liners and leachate, the liquid that drains from the landfill, collections systems. Because of these new regulations, hundreds of landfills are closing, and fewer and larger privately owned landfills are remaining open. Fewer landfills results in increased transportation costs. As of now there might not be scarcity in land for new landfills, but new landfills are being created large distances from population centers. Long hauling and disposing municipal solid waste at distant landfills is already costing some cities on the West and East coasts between $40 and $70 per ton.2 These privately owned landfills may increase these costs. Studies show that privately owned landfills are much more expensive than publicly owned landfills by twenty percent, and publicly owned ones provide greater control over disposal activities. This all means that the existing landfills are a precious possession and recycling extends their lives.2 Although lack of land is not currently the problem for new landfills, communities do not exactly want to be dumped on. Therefore, a policy that reduces the burden on the environment and on local communities from the transportation and dumping of trash should be put into place.2 Incinerators are very expensive and recycling would be much more cost effective. Tip fees at incinerators built between 1989 and 1993 average $60 per ton.2 Incinerators built more recently have had to lower tip fees simply to compete with other disposal facilities. Montgomery County, Maryland is a great example of the how expensive the option of incinerators is. Montgomery County had to raise taxes to property owners just to cover the operating costs of its newly built incinerator after it lowered the facilitys tip fees in order to attract waste.2  [6]   Claiming that landfills and incinerators are more environmentally sound is not a valid argument. Even the best landfills contaminate groundwater from eventually leaking. As far as incinerators are concerned, thirty percent by weight of trash enteringà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦exists as ash.2 This ash is a waste that contains high levels of toxic residue. Furthermore, they emit carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and other acid gases that landfills do not. One study found that Floridas largest incinerators were burning significant amounts of recycling materials. This is due to the fact that contracts are requiring governments to bring a certain amount of waste to incinerators. These contracts are posing a major disincentive to maximize recycling or waste reduction programs.2 In summary, although landfills and incinerators may have some benefits, they are preventing us from moving forward and implementing more environmentally friendly and cost effective methods. We need to plan for the future because what is cheap and easy now will not be in the future. It is much easier to prevent a problem, then to fix the problem once it is already out of control. The next myth about recycling is that landfills are significant job generators for rural communities, and recycling programs would take these jobs away. However, the fact is that recycling creates many more jobs for rural and urban communities than landfill and incineration disposal options.2 Simply sorting the recycled materials alone would provide ten times more jobs than landfilling. The biggest pay-off though is making new products from the old products. So many aspects of the recycling process provide thousands of jobs. New recycling-based manufacturers employ even more people and at higher wages. Recycling-based paper mills and plastic product manufacturers, for instance, employ 60 times more workers than do landfills. Product reuse also sustains significantly more jobs than disposal options. Computer refurbishing repair, for example, creates 68 times more jobs than landfills.2  [7]  There are 25.5 million tons of durable goods discarded into the landfills in American each year. If just half of them each year were reclaimed through reuse, over 100,000 new jobs in the recycling industry would be created alone.2 Recycling is entirely sensible from an economic standpoint.3 There are doubts about just how willing citizens would be to adapting a new waste disposal method. As we can see from this problem, it is evident that many households do not recycle at all. It is a valid point to question, would people even go along with a mandatory program? The answer, through polls, is yes. A survey conducted with Wisconsin residents discovered that ninety-six percent responded that they believe their recycling efforts are worthwhile.3 Although some may argue the statistic would be lower across the board of the United States, a number that high is very promising. It does not seem difficult to educate people on the environment so they understand why it is necessary for a program. Regardless of the doubts some people may have, a recycling program is extremely necessary for the people, the United States, and the whole planet. The benefits of recycling should diminish any doubts. Arguments against a program have all been proven to be weak arguments and even the biggest issue of economics has been addressed. It is a much better choice financially to implement a full recycling procedure. In a world where global warming and going green are common terms in the English language, everyone should be able to say they are doing something to help. Everyone should be able to say they are recycling.

Data Gathering And Dissemination In Wireless

Data Gathering And Dissemination In Wireless A wireless sensor network is special kind of ad hoc networks that consists of a number of low-cost, low-power, and multi-functional wireless sensor nodes, with sensing, wireless communications and computation capabilities [1,2,3]. These sensor nodes communicate over a short range via a wireless medium and collaborate to accomplish a common task, like environmental monitoring, military surveillance, and industrial process control [3]. Wireless sensor networks have open up for new opportunities to observe and interact with the physical environment around us. They enable us now to collect and gather data that was difficult or impossible before [4]. Although Wireless Sensor Networks have given new ways to provide information from variety of applications, irrespective of the nature of physical environment, it is seen as a challenging task to extract data from sensor network. Data dissemination and gathering are two terms used in sensor networks to describe two categories of data handling methods. Data dissemination is a process by which data and queries for data are routed in the sensor networks where as data gathering is to transmit data that has been collected by the sensor nodes to the base stations. Data gathering protocols aim to minimize the energy consumption and delay of data gathering process [5]. Although there are differences between these two but almost all the literature called together as routing protocols. Unlike traditional wireless communications networks such as mobile ad hoc and cellular systems, wireless sensor networks have the following unique characteristics and constraints [3]: high density sensor node deployment, battery or no power sensor nodes, low memory and processor capacity, self-configurable, unreliable sensor nodes, data redundancy, application specific and dynamic topology. Due to above characteristics and constraints of wireless sensor networks, the extraction of data from the network is always a challenge. Therefore, it is importa nt that the design of protocols for data gathering and dissemination takes care about these challenges. The main design challenges of routing protocols for wireless sensor network are: Energy, Processing power and Memory. Some of the design challenges as reflected in [3, 6] are highlighted below: Large number of sensor nodes: Since most of the wireless sensor networks composed of large sensor nodes, it is very difficult to have an addressing scheme like other wireless networks. The traditional IP scheme is not feasible to apply for wireless sensor networks. Moreover, the sensor nodes are deployed at random in hostile environment. Limited energy capacity: The sensor nodes are battery powered, so they have limited energy. This is the main challenges in designing wireless sensor networks. In practice, sensor network deployment makes sense only if they can run unattended for months and years without running short of energy [4]. Flow of Data: Almost all the applications of sensor network require the sensory data from multiple sources to flow towards a single destination node called sink in contrast to the traditional networks. Sensor node locations: Most of the proposed routing protocols assumed that the sensor nodes are equipped with global positioning system (GPS), but in practice it is very difficult to manage the locations of sensor nodes. It has become more challenging as sensor networks topology changes frequently due to node failures, moving from the coverage area. Data redundancy: Data collected by various sensor nodes are typically based on common phenomenon; hence the probability of data redundancy is very high. The routing protocol needs to incorporate data aggregation techniques to decrease the number of transmission. Application Specific: The sensor networks are application specific. The requirement of routing protocol changes as per the specific application. It is very challenging to design routing protocols which can meet the requirements of all applications. Scalability: The size of the network grows, so the routing protocols need to be scalable to support the addition of sensor nodes. All sensors may not necessarily have same capabilities of energy, processing, sensing and communications. These should be taken care while designing the routing protocols. Addition to the above parameters the designing of routing protocols for wireless sensor networks also need to look into following points [6]: Node deployment Related work: Since wireless sensor networks gain its usage in various application areas, there is a growing interest in this field leading towards continual emergence of new architectural techniques. Wireless sensor network is widely considered as one of the most important technologies of the 21st century [8]. In this section we bring out and highlight how our survey differs from the similar surveys done previously in this area. We also highlight the scope and target group who will benefit from our work. In [2], similar survey was carried out on routing protocols for wireless networks. The information in [2] was published some five years back and many new protocols have not covered. In [3], although it has covered almost all the routing protocols for wireless sensor networks but it does not provide insight knowledge about the protocols. The survey is good for readers interested in broad area. The goal of [8] is to give a comprehensive survey on routing techniques focusing on mobility issues in sensor networks and does not cover all the routing protocols in wireless sensor networks. In this survey, we bring out the comparative study among wireless sensor network routing protocols bringing their differences and similarities. We also bring out the advantages and disadvantages of different protocols to use in different applications of wireless sensor networks. This survey would be useful for both introductory readers as well as for aspirant researchers who would like to get the comprehen sive idea about the current-state-of-art regarding the techniques of data gathering and dissemination in wireless sensor networks. However, we follow [3] in classifying the routing protocols into different categories although we put some additional protocols which are not covered by [3]. We also excluded multipath-based protocol category since it falls under data-centric category. Table 1 shows the different categories of wireless sensor network routing protocols inspired by [3]. The representative protocols with (*) marks are our additions. Table 1: Routing Protocols for WSNs Category of Protocols Representative Protocol Location-based Protocols MECN, SMECN,GAF, GEAR, Span, TBF, BVGF, GeRaF Data-centric Protocols SPIN, Directed Diffusion, Rumor Routing, COUGAR, EAD, ACQUIRE, Information-Directed Routing, Gradient-based Routing, Energy-aware routing, Information Directed Routing, Quorum-based Information dissemination, Home Agent-based Information Dissemination, *Flooding, *Gossiping. Hierarchical-based Protocols LEACH, PEGASIS, HEED, TEEN, APTEEN Mobility-based Protocols SEAD, TTDD, Joint mobility and routing, Data MULES, Dynamic Proxy Tree-based Data Dissemination, *MDC Heterogeneity-based Protocols IDSQ,CADR,CHR QoS-based Protocols SAR, SPEED, Energy-Aware Routing. Data-Centric Protocols The protocols are differentiated into two categories called data-centric and address-centric. The address-centric routing protocols find the shortest path between source and the destination with addressing scheme like IP whereas in data-centric routing protocols focus is made to search routes from multiple source nodes to a single destination node. In the sensor networks, data-centric routing is preferred where data consolidation and aggregation is done by the intermediate nodes on the data coming from multiple sources before sending to the sink node. This way, it saves some energy preventing redundant data transmissions. In this section, we highlight some of the samples of data-centric routing protocols proposed for wireless sensor networks. Flooding: Flooding [5] is a data dissemination method where each sensor node that receives a packet broadcasts it to its neighboring nodes assuming that node itself is not the destination of the packet. This process continues until the packet arrives the destination or the maximum hop counts for that packet is reached. Flooding though is a simple and easy to implement, but it has problem like implosion (duplicate message sent to the same node) and overlap (duplicate message receive by the same node) [2]. Figure 1 and 2 reproduced from [2] shows the implosion and overlap problems in flooding. Gossiping: Gossiping [5] is based on flooding, but nodes that receives the packet forwards it only to a single randomly selected neighbor. It avoids implosion problem of flooding and it does not waste as much network resources as flooding. However, gossiping is not a reliable data dissemination method since the neighbor node is selected at random, some nodes may not receive that message at all. Moreover, it introduces a delay in propagation of data through the nodes [2] since all the nodes which forwards or sends data need to select a node. SPIN: Sensor Protocols for Information via Negotiation (SPIN) [9, 10] aims to improve the implosion and overlapping problems of classic flooding protocol. The SPIN protocols are based on two key mechanisms namely negotiation and resource adaptation [3]. It uses three types of messages [5]: ADV, REQ, and DATA. The sensor node which has collected data sends an ADV message using high-level descriptors or meta-data regarding the actual data. The actual data is transmitted only when the REQ message is received from the interested nodes. This negotiation mechanism avoids the overlapping and implosion problems of classic flooding because the REQ message is sent from the interested node only when it does not have that data. Fig. 3, redrawn from [5] shows how these three messages are exchanged and fig. 4 inspired by [9] and reproduced from [11] shows more detail process who SPIN works. There are about four versions of SPIN protocols [6, 9, 10]. They are SPIN-PP, SPIN-BC, SPIN-EC and SPIN-RL. Both SIPN-PP and SPIN-BC works under ideal condition when energy is not constraint and packet are never lost. SPIN-PP tackles the data dissemination problem by using point to point media where as SPIN-BC uses broadcast media. There other two protocols are the modified versions of SPIN-PP and SPIN-BC in order to network which are not ideal. SPIN-EC is actually SPIN-PP with additional energy conservation capability. Under SPIN-EC, the nodes participate in data dissemination only when it computes that it has enough energy. If the node has plentiful energy, it works as same as SPIN-PP with 3-stage handshake. SPIN-RL is a version of SPIN-BC which tries to recover from the losses in the network by selectively retransmitting the messages. In SPIN topological changes are localized as each node needs to have information of their next immediate one-hop neighbor only. But this type of protocol cannot be used in applications where reliability is of greater concern like forest fire and intrusion detection since it does not guarantee the data delivery [2]. If the nodes that are interested in data are located far way and the intermediate nodes are not interested then the ADV message will not received which in turn will not able to get data. Directed Diffusion: Directed Diffusion [12] consists of elements like interests, data, messages, gradients and reinforcements. The main objective of the protocol is to use naming scheme to reduce the energy usage by avoiding unnecessary routing operations. Interest is a query or interrogation on what user wants and it contains descriptions of a sensing task. Data is the collected or processed information of a physical phenomenon which is named using attribute-value pair. Gradient is a link a neighbor from which interest was received, and it is characterized by data rate, duration, and expiration time which has derived from the received interest filed [2]. A node, usually sink will be broadcasting interest to request data by diffusing interest through its neighbors. The interests are periodically refreshed by the sink. When this interest is received by the intermediate nodes, they cache for future use, or do in-network data aggregation or direct interest based on previous cached data. The source node sen ds the data back through the reverse path of the interest. When data is received by the nodes, they try to compare with the interest cache before. The data which matches the interest is drawn and then sent via the same path where the interest has received. Out of several paths between sink and the source, one path is selected by network by reinforcement. Once this path is selected, the sink sends the original interest again with smaller time interval so as to make the source node on the selected path to send data more frequently. Although directed diffusion has advantages that the protocol can in-network data aggregation and caching which saves energy but this protocol cannot not be applicable to all the applications of wireless sensor networks. The protocol can only be applied to such application which is query driven. It is not suitable for the applications such as forest fire detection or intrusion detection. Fig. 4, copied from [12] shows the working of the protocol. Rumor Routing Rumor routing [13] another variation of Directed Diffusion aims to direct the query to the nodes which have observed event rather than flooding the entire network [2]. It is a logical compromise between query flooding and event flooding [3]. This protocol is only useful if the number of queries compared to number of events is between the two interaction points. See fig. 5, redrawn from [13]. Rumor routing algorithms introduces an agent, a long live packet. An agent, which also contains an event table like nodes, travels the network propagating information about local event to the distant nodes. The agent informs the nodes it encounters of any events it has observed on its way and at the same time it will synchronize its event table with the event table of encountered node. An agent will travel the network for certain number of hops and then die. All the nodes including an agent maintains an event table list that has event-distance pairs, as shown in fig. 6, copied from [13]. So when a node generates a query for an event, the nodes that knows the route, can respond to the query by referring its event table [2]. In this way, flooding the whole network is avoided. Directional rumor routing is proposed in [14], which try to improve latency and energy consumption by considering query and event propagation in straight line instead of random walk in normal rumor routing. Cougar Cougar [15, 16] is a database approach for tasking sensor networks through declarative queries. Since in-network computation is much cheaper than transmission and communication between nodes, cougar approach proposes a loosely-coupled distributed architecture to support both aggregation and in-network computation. This helps in reducing energy consumption thereby increasing lifetime. The architecture introduces a query proxy layer in each sensor node which interacts both with network layer and application layers. The gateway node (where query optimizer is located) generates a query processing plan after receiving queries from the sensor nodes. This query plan specifies both data flow between sensor nodes and in-network computation plan at each individual sensor node. The query plan also contains how to select a leader for the query. The query plan can be viewed at non-leader node and at the leader node. Fig. 7 and fig. 8, redrawn from [15], show query plan at non-leader node (source sensor) and leader node respectively. Although, cougar provides solution to interact with the sensor nodes independent from the network layer, but the insertion of proxy layer at each sensor node introduce extra overhead for sensor node in terms of memory and energy consumption [2]. Additional delay may be incurred with the relay trying to wait for the packets from other nodes for aggregation before sending to the leader node. ACQUIRE ACQUIRE [16] is a data-centric routing protocol aiming at large distributed databases. It aims at complex queries which comprise of several sub-queries that are combined by conjunctions or disjunctions in an arbitrary manner. The protocol sends an active query packet into the network. This active query packet is sent by the sink, which takes random path or path predefined or guided. The node which receives this active query packet uses information stored within them to partially resolve the query. If the nodes do not have updated information, they gather the information from their neighboring nodes with the distance of d (look-ahead parameter) hops. When the active query is resolved completely, the response is sent back to the node which has issued the query. Some of the assumptions made in this protocol are [17]: the sensors, with same transmission range are laid out uniformly in a region and they are stationary and do not fail. EAD: Energy-Aware Data-Centric Routing Energy-Aware Data-Centric (EAD) [18] aims to construct a virtual backbone containing all active sensors, which is responsible for in-network data processing and relaying traffic. The radios of other nodes which are not in the virtual backbone are put off to conserve the energy. The sensor network is represented by a broadcast tree rooted at the gateway and spanning all the sensors with large leaf nodes. In order to conserve power, the radios of these leaf nodes are put off while the nodes which are in virtual backbone are active for traffic relaying. The protocol tries to construct broadcast spanning tree network with maximum leaf nodes so that maximum energy can be conserved. The concept of EAD is to include the neighboring broadcast scheduling and the distributed competition among neighbors, based on residual energy [18]. The efficiency of the protocol would be more when the size of the network is small. When the size of the network is large, execution time will be more since the e xecution process propagates from the sink to the whole network. Other protocol like the one proposed by Shah and Rabaey in [19] also aims at increasing network life time. They use network survivability as the main metric and propose to choose one of the multiple paths with a certain probability so that the whole network life time increases. But the protocol assumes that each node is addressable with some addressing schemes. Information-Directed Routing Location-based Protocols Since sensor nodes have limited energy capacity, most of the routing protocols aim to reduce the consumption of energy in routing processes. In most of the protocols location of the sensor nodes are used to find the distance between two communicating pairs in order to find the best possible path with low energy usage. If location of a particular sensor node is known, query can be sent to that particular location only without sending to other regions which will reduce the number of transmission significantly [2]. Location-based protocol makes use of the position information to relay data to the network rather than the whole network. In this section, we describe some of the location-based routing protocols proposed for wireless sensor networks. Minimum Energy Communication Network (MECN): Hierarchical-based Protocols

Rutherfurds Estates Essay -- Character Analysis, Lady St. James, Mere

In Edward Rutherfurd’s London, characters from all three estates are introduced and throughout each chapter their ideals and personality traits are developed. Some characters tend to be better off than others economically, but each of these more unfortunate characters uses his intellect to get ahead. The powerful characters are divided into two categories, because some are politically powerful and others are powerful in their community by making tough decisions and having important leadership qualities. Whatever the circumstance may be, throughout the book each estate has an extensive collection of characters with very different traits. Characters in each estate have characteristics such as wealth, power, and intellect that widely vary from one another and can range from poor, simpleminded people with no power to cunning, powerful people that have more money than they need. The 1st estate, the nobility, is comprised of people who tend to be more powerful and a great deal wealthier than those of the other estates. However, in London, a few characters from the 1st estate possess quite a bit of intelligence, and use it to their advantage. Lady St. James from the chapter â€Å"Gin Lane† uses her intellect to get revenge on her abusive husband. After she is humiliated by Lord St. James, she devises a plan that she intends to carry out with the help of Jack Meredith. Her plan is very carefully thought out, and in the end is foolproof. The plan is to have Meredith claim that he is her lover so Lord St. James will challenge him to a duel. Then, when St. James comes home to prepare for the duel, she will â€Å"make amends† with him and convince him not to kill Meredith. She writes to Meredith and tells him that St. James is going to try to kill hi... ...e puts stress on characters in the 3rd estate. However, some characters like Gilbert Bull, are very wealthy. As Rutherfurd writes, â€Å"With money and family connections he soon prospered† (432). Family connections were very important to the 3rd estate, because otherwise they were simply commoners. Some became merchants, doctors, lawyers, and other occupations that paid a fairly decent salary. London does a great job of illustrating the different social and moral situations of people in assorted estates. Many of the characters got over their low social and economical standing by using their intellect. Some characters lost their respect and their power by making mistakes and terrible decisions. Every estate has characters that are poor or wealthy, intellectual or ignorant, and powerful or weak. Every character is different, just like every estate is different.

Coca-Cola Advertisement Essay -- Business Analysis

What could possibly be more American than apple pie, baseball or the anonymous World War II kiss? Coca- Cola, of course! Coke’s strong pathos resonates as a symbol of America’s golden years. The Coke bottle montage adorned in pictures of unforgettable American events, artists and past times embodies what it truly means to be American. To be American means to take pride in your country and represent as a unit, not as an individual. All the components that have compose this montage grasp the concept of American patriotism. One of the most identified brands in the world: Coca-Cola has distinguished itself as a symbol of American pride. Since, its 1886 debut, Coca-Cola has been the world leader in â€Å"Delicious and Refreshing† soft drinks. This timeless classic has captivated and supported audience’s morale for decades. The modern Coca-Cola advertisement conveys the message that effervescent classic never dies. The icons displayed are testament of the longevity of an active human lifestyle as their legacies hold strong. Each one has played an active role in the American dream. This advertisement is designed in a way most recognizable. The importance of the trademark insignia is reminiscent of the times. The Coca- Cola logo present in the advertisement is that from 1969 where the ribbon device Arden Square with Dynamic Ribbon, was introduced (â€Å"Trademark Chronology†). Similar to the American flag the ribbon flows. The Arden Square with Dynamic Ribbon device is still present similar to the memories of the greats (i.e. Elvis) with minor alteration (â€Å"Trademark Chronology†). The advertisement uses pathos to appeal to the audience through collage pictures of various American classics. But before the revolution of Classic Coca-Cola came th... ... ideal projection of the values for this advertisement focuses on the patriotism of America and how it ties in with Coca-Colas image. These ideal include confidence, recouping after a failure as they did with the† New Coke Advertisement†, and a sense of unity for country and fellow man. Works Cited â€Å"Coke Lore: Trademark Chronology.† The Coca-Cola Company, 2006. Web. 15 February 2010. History. â€Å"Coke Lore: The Real Story of New Coke.† The Coca-Cola Company, 2006. Web. 15 February 2010. Simon and Schuster. â€Å"The Beatles: Biography.† Rolling Stones, 2001. Web. 15 February 2010. Barbara Haberman. â€Å"Marilyn Monroe: Biography.† Marilyn Monroe, 1 June 1 2004. Web. 15 February 2010. Raecroy, A. â€Å"Coca-Cola Advertisement†. Advertisement. Toxel.com 2 Aug. 2008 Web. 1 Feb. 2010.

The Need for Performance Appraisal in the Uae Transport and Travel Industry

Student Name: Instructor’s Name: Title: PROPOSAL: The Need for Performance Appraisal in the UAE Transport and Travel Industry Course: Institution: Table of Contents An evaluation of performance appraisal in UAE travel department3 Introduction3 Statement of the problem3 Research Objectives and Aims3 Background and Significance4 Significance of the Study4 LITERATURE REVIEW5 How has the UAE transport industry failed in embrace performance appraisal? 5 Emirisation policy (Nationalism)5 Employee wage rates and prohibition of workers tribunal6 National Culture and traditions7Organization Culture8 Research methods and design9 Research design9 Research deliverables/potential values/expected outcomes10 Limitations of the research10 Ethical Implications10 Bibliography12 The need for performance appraisal in the UAE transport and travel industry An evaluation of performance appraisal in UAE travel department Introduction Human resource management is the main determinant of employee perfo rmance in any organization (Wright et. al 2003). For effective management of employees, performance appraisal and management is a critical aspect in the human resource department.With the increasing competition, the advancement of technology and the current global economic decline, government departments and organizations are changing their employee practices to save resources and at the same time increase productivity (Armstrong 2009). They are working towards improving employee productivity. Resources in organizations are currently moving from capital and asset holding to skills employees possess, their brand and intellectual capability. Thus, the research will aim at critically examining how performance appraisal will improve employee productivity and reduce disputes in the UAE transport travel industry.Statement of the problem Increased poor performance and low employee productivity in the government sectors is affecting the general economy of the United Arab Emirates government s. Increased employee within the transport industry calls for a critical evaluation and implementation of performance appraisal. Research Objectives and Aims The research will basically base on ways of improving UAE employees’ productivity through performance appraisal. It restricts its scope to government sector and issues affecting employees within their departments and in the general organization.The research will also involve the government sector in the UAE. Specific Objectives ? To determine what is causing reduced productivity among employees ? To identify areas of weakness within the government organization ? To identify specific appraisal measures that the organizations are lacking ? To suggest appropriate measures of realizing improved performance Background and Significance The United Arab Emirates is a federal association comprising of seven different countries in the Southeast of the Arabian Pensula. The Emirates has conserved customs, laws and business practices governed by the Islamic beliefs.It is known for well developed infrastructure and its transport and travel industry that extends to international levels and serves a wide range of nationals. This is because it adopts technologies of other foreign states and is improves its transport industry by expanding it internationally (Alrawi & Sabry, 2009. However, currently, employee disputes and strikes experienced in most of the emirate countries is rampant. This is common in the biggest and most famous Emirates such a Dubai and Sharjah. Significance of the StudyThe study will look at employee productivity as a factor of performance appraisal in the UAE government departments with emphasis on the travel and transport industry of the UAE. The study will have significance both theoretically and practically. It improves the understanding of how performance appraisal of employees will increase their productivity and improve relations among employees and with their seniors in the UAE. It will a lso enable the government department to know which strategies they should put in place in order to attain employee job satisfaction, commitment and increased retention rates.The problem of employee productivity is an area of limited research. The study will develop a theoretical framework for employee performance appraisal and productivity in relation to UAE policies. LITERATURE REVIEW Employee performance and levels of productivity determines profits of any firm. According to Heathfield (2008), organizations are aiming at seeking advantages, and for this reason she says, evaluation of workers performance is becoming the immediate area of target. She says that the management of employee performance is of advantage for both the employee and the employer.She further states that, however the approach to the concept of performance appraisal may differ from one organization to another, the concept and its meaning still focuses on human capital as the most important asset in the organizat ion. How the UAE transport industry has failed in embrace performance appraisal Emirisation policy (Nationalism) Emirisation policy aims at developing more workforce among the nationals of UAE through education systems, training and career development so as to reduce the number of non-nationals in the countries and encourage employment of the nationals (Rees Et. l, 2007). This in turn may affect performance of the non-national employees and may lead to unfair judgment of employee performance by the managers. Many organizations are embracing the policies, and in turn changing the managerial approaches of the firms (Mansour, 2008). Human resource practices such as recruiting procedures (Randeree, 2009) and employment strategies are affected as a result of the emirisation policy. For example the banking sector where employment of the nationals increased to 30% from 28% in the year 2005. Employee wage rates and prohibition of workers tribunalLow wage rates and poor working conditions as a result of prohibit trade unions in the UAE, is a matter of concern and making headlines (Francis, 2008 ). This however involves discrimination of non-national workers from india, Plilistienes and Pakistan. The result of ignoring the human resopurse factor leads to disputes, strikes low employee production and damages the image of the organization. She states that the government intervenes to have more control on the employees; however, arresting workers who are fighting for their rights is uncouth.Performance appraisal aims at looking into the affairs of workers which also involves changing policies as the economy also improves. Francis (2008) further states that employee strike also resulted from policies established in the past two decades that organizations were still using in determining the rates of payment entitled to workers. He says that in Dubai, striking was illegal and therefore, for workers to engage in it, having in mind the consequences, it means that they are respo nding to the industrial working conditions that would result to utter poverty.The government in this case denies the workers certain rights and worsens it by detaining the demonstrators when they have no tribunals that they could rather have gone to and negotiated with the government. Dubai is known for its advanced air services, transport and tourism. However, labour issues as a result of employee wage rates are also a rising issue of concern. Shaibany (2011) writes an article on employee strike as a result of less pay. In is report he says that two hundred employees of Oman air went on strike following their demand for increase in pay. This is just after another incident in the North of jobs and wages.He say says that however, the flight staff did not strike, that the ground staff. Although this had no effect on flights for that day, the issue of employee performance is still an issue of concern. The issue of remuneration is also affected by gender inequality. In some cases in the UAE, female employees have been legally considered to earn less income than their male counterparts irrespective of their abilities and commitment (Tanmia, 2005). This has a direct effect to their performance. National Culture and traditions Arab traditions do not for provide elections in the political system of the UAE.The culture is based on previous generations, National and regional culture, gender and social organizational cultures that in turn have an effect on work values (Abubakr, 2006). Regional influence is more diverse than the rest. Religion, language and historical factors affect organization retention and employee satisfactions which are among the goals that performance appraisal aim at. Pawan et al. (2006) argue that the economic and political importance in the middle East are the areas of interests and therefore, this over shadows the development of human resource management literature.This, he says, affects performance in the business sectors which largely contribu te to the general economy. That poor economic growth as a result of assuming the human resource capital of the organization is affecting the standard of living of people in the region. Goel (2008) explains how a performance appraisal interview puts the employee in a better position to communicate their views and opinions, to identify their weaknesses and knows areas which require improvement and adjustments. He states that this improves communication within the organization and motivates workers to improve themselves.Goel notes that different organizations conduct the appraisal exercise at different times, others yearly or twice a year. However, he suggests that unscheduled and informal exercises are better and more useful. The United Arab Emirates is experiencing a commendable growth in the economic sector and is embracing technology from foreigners at a high rate. According to (OECD 2010), the government aims at capacity building. The government is now moving form the traditional system of personnel management that has less professionalism and is routine oriented to a human resource management system which focuses on performance.OECD states that human resource management focuses more on employees as recourse to the organization and not a tool. This therefore means that, their performance is a priority to the organization as well as their well being, which the organization ensures by providing them with favorable working conditions while balancing its advantage. Organization Culture Recognition is one of the factors that ensures employee satisfaction and enables them to stay in a given job for a longer period (Buckingham & Coffman, 1999).Many organizations in the United Arab Emirates transport industry, especially in Dubai and Sharjah, perceive manager as the best and expect employees to simply follow instructions and work. Practices within organizations in relation to economic policies and strategies are also an issue. Beer and Ruh in Vroom (1990) managing p eople state the use of Management by Objective (MBO) system as an important in instilling accountability on the part of workers other than just improving their personal qualities.Beer and Ruh further explain that many managers and top executives dislike judging their subordinates on how they work as a way of ensuring that everyone is working towards the goals of the organization. However, he says, this is the most Important role of the managers within the organization to ensure that all efforts are directed towards achieving a common goal of the organization. Some managers fear giving negative results o employee analyses when they need to so as to enable the employee improve on the areas of weaknesses. Likely, some are ignorant of employee reactions and interpersonal situations as they focus on results alone.Such managers, he says, do not care about the employee and at times will communicate the results in a manner to frustrate them, which is not ethical. Research methods and design The research will use secondary data from available literature that is books and internet sources. The research will also use survey methods in collection of data by use of survey questionnaires to employees and employers at different job posts. Semi-structured interviews will also be involved. The research will include qualitative technique to gather analysis and concepts and quantitative technique to gather numerical data (Punch 2005) Research designThe purpose of the research is to investigate the need for performance appraisal in the transport and travel industry in Dubai. The study will based on employees and employers responses regarding the objective of the need for performance appraisal in the industry. The researcher will adopt an exploratory study design. An explanatory approach will also be used in explaining the relationship between variables. Research deliverables/potential values/expected outcomes The research will provide managerial information for managing human res ource that will enable organizations in the transport industry to increase employee productivity.This is of value to both employers and the workers. The research expects that the outcome will give relevant areas of weakness that management require applying employee performance appraisal and effectiveness of this procedure to the general organization. Limitations of the research Dubai is an Arab speaking country which only embraced English for business and commerce purposes. The researcher therefore is likely to face the problem of language barrier among the nationals. Not all nationals are used to English and if so, not fluent English. This will be a limiting factor in the case of interviews.Being a Muslim country, religious barriers are likely. Cultures like restricted closeness with respondents of the opposite sex and way of dressing as restricted by the respondents’ religion might be a limitation during the research. Collection of information from respondents of a differen t gender will pose a challenge to the researcher. Nationality and race of the researcher might be a possible limitation in the research. Respondents may fear to respond to questions or get close to the researcher because of racial barrier and different nationality. Organization policy in the foreign country will limit research and collection of information.Organization management might refuse to cooperate by restricting employees from participating in the data collection. Ethical Implications The research will observe quality in information and findings, encouraging no faulty or defrauding information from the participants of the research. It will also ensure safety of the participants is taken into consideration with equal assurance to them of confidentiality and non disclosure of their information details. The researcher will present confidential forms to this effect which he will sign and the respondent will sign too.Quality of information will be ensured by collecting informatio n from direct victims of performance appraisal (employees). Bibliography Abubakr, M. (2006). Managing human resource in the Middle East: Human resource management in the United Arab Emirates. London: Taylor & Francis Ltd. Alrawi, K. , & Sabry, K. (2009). E-commerce evolution: A Gulf region review. International Journal of Business Information Systems, 4(5), 509 – 526 Armstrong, M. (2009). Armstrong's handbook of human resource management practices (11th ed. ). London: Kogan Page Limited. Buckingham, M. , ; Coffman, C. (1999).First, break all the rules: What the world’s greatest managers do differently. New York: Simon ; Shuster. Francis. V, (2008). Dubai Labor Fighting Back Vs. Indentured Globalization. Retrieved on November 5, 2012 from GOEL, D. (2008). Performance appraisal and compensation management. New Dehli, Prentice-Hall of India. Heathfield, S. M, (2008). Why organizations employ performance evaluation. Retrieved on November 5, 2012 from Organisation for Econo mic Co-Operation and Development. (2010). Progress in public management in the Middle East and North Africa: case studies on policy reform. Paris, OECD Pawan S. B, ;Mellahi,K. (2006).Managing Human Resources in the Middle East. Routledge Punch, F. (2005). Introduction to social research: Quantitative and qualitative approaches. London: Saga Publications Randeree, K. (2009). Strategy, policy and practice in the nationalisation of human capital: Project Emiratisation. Research ; Practice in Human Resource Management 17(1), 71-79. Rees, C. , Mamman, A. , ; Bin Braik, A. (2007). Emiratization asa strategic HRM change initiative: Case study evidence from a UAE petroleum company. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 18(1), 33-53. Shaibany, S. (2011). Oman Air employees strike for higher wages.Tanmia, 2004. Emiratisation in the Banking Sector: Factors Influencing Success and Failure: The National Human Resource Development and Employment Authority: Centre for Labour Market R esearch and Information. Human Resource development and employment Authority. Dubai: United Arab. Emirates Vroom, V. H (1990). Manage people, not personnel: motivation and performance appraisal. Boston, MA, HBS Press. Wright, P. , ; Kehoe, R. (2008). Human resource practices and organizational commitment: A deeper examination. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 46(1), 6-20. Appendices Appendix 1: Timeline and work plan Task |Duration | |Review of literature |1day | |Investigations of surveys done |1day | |Preparation of questionnaires |1day | |Actual survey |2weeks | |Data analysis |4days | |Report writing and compilation |1 week | Appendix 2: Budget Expected task |Expected cost ($) | |Information from the library |170 | |Testing of questionnaires |150 | |Actual survey |300 | |Miscellaneous costs |150 | |Total |770 |

Women in Business

WOMEN IN BUSINESS Course: HRMG 5000 Managing Human Resources Term: Summer, 2011 Paper #1: Women in Business Student: Daphne Westerlaken – van Westen Contact information: daphne. van. [email  protected] com University: Webster University Leiden Instructor: Arthur De La Loza -2Abstract There is a direct correlation between corporate finance performance and women in leadership roles. The number of female college graduates and overall percentage of females in the workforce is increasing. Therefore the pipeline of women has greatly increased and companies have to capitalize on this to ensure these companies are going to retain, attract and develop this pool of talent. An equal balance of qualified men and women can only be achievd when top management focus on what women want in their company, work-life balance, talent management and equal compensation. Therefore the performance of top management should be judged partly on their ability to groom and promote female talent. -3Introduction The numbers of female college graduates and overall percentage of females in the workforce is increasing. In order to ensure that companies continue to appeal to the best and the brightest men and women, companies need to promote the fact that there is equal access to opportunity for both genders. Catalyst, the leading nonprofit organization working globally with business to build inclusive workplaces and expand opportunities for women and business, has found that there is a direct correlation between corporate finance performance and women in leadership roles. Studies show a more equal balance of qualified men and women drives innovation, engagement and business success. This research paper will focus on the involvement of Human Resource Management to increase the number of women in leadership roles. What Women Want The majority of the women and especially Generation Y (born 1978 – 1994) are concerned about the impact of their life-work balance (e. g. family, child care) decision will have on their careers. BPW (Business and Professional Women’s) Foundation did research on this topic and found out that the most important employer characteristics for women are: 1. Opportunity for employees to self-manage 2. Emphasis on meeting goals, as opposed to how, when or where people do the work 3. Availability of and focus on career advancement opportunities Furthermore BPW found out that women are disconnected with employers when: -41. Employees judge each other based on the number of hours worked and not results produced 2. Employees at the top have more freedom than employees at the bottom. The overall percentage of females in the workforce is increasing and the Generation Y women are the workforce for tomorrow. Because of this, women will ensure the long term business successes. Therefore corporations have to retain, attract and develop women by fulfilling their needs by a multipronged approach: 1. Organizational level: Examine and adjust the prevailing mind-set of inputs over outputs. An environment that rewards a person’s presence is not conducive for encouraging people to apply tools that might improve their performance. 2. Management level: Managers need to be coached in and held accountable for the ways in which their practices enable or limit the effectiveness of their direct reports. 3. Individual level: Each individual should be encourages to identify where and when they work best. Quotas & Regulation Currently women occupy is just 12% of the seats on the boards of large European companies. The European Union warns that if listed European businesses have not made significant progress in raising that percentage by next year March, the European Union will consider mandating that they do through measures such as boardroom measures gender-quotas of the kind already in place in France, Spain and Norway. The proportion of women occupy the seats on the board of the listed France’s companies is expected to hit 20% next year, up from 7% two years ago. The pool of qualified women is finite and therefore the pressure is to prevent that pool from drying up. One of the reasons that -5qualified women are not in that pool, is because there are not visible to companies. Therefore companies and also women need to take actions like: 1. Develop and introduce mentoring programs (pairing senior women with company chairmen as mentors) 2. Build up systematically contacts (networking inside and outside the company) 3. Women have to inform company bosses of the progress in their developments 4. Chief executives have to promote women to their executive committees Regulatory back-up, like quotas, are required, because some men over 60 think that suitable females don’t exist because they have never had women as their peers, and they think women can’t take the pressure involved in serving on a board. Furthermore, these quotas forces companies to develop strategies and programs to retain, attract and develop high qualified women, who can enter the boardroom. But there is also a down side of quotas. Companies have to avoid pushing too low qualified women into boardrooms only to meet these quotas. This will harm the qualified women more than the quotas will help. Work – life Balance With women now making up almost half of the labor force in the Unit States and Europe, they are increasingly juggling work with care giving responsibilities at home. The solution for this dilemma is work flexibility and scheduling. There are several solutions and possibilities to increase the work-life balance: 1. Employees working at home. This can be achieved by teleworking. Telework means that employees work via electronic, telecommunications and Internet means. -62. Compressed work week. A compressed work week is a work week in which a full week’s work is accomplished in fewer than five 8-hour days. Example: four 10hour days. 3. Flextime: Scheduling arrangement in which employees work a set number of hours a day but vary starting and ending times. 4. Job-sharing: Scheduling arrangement in which 2 employees perform the work of one full-time job. Researches have shown that the approach of work flexibility and schedule not only help a company’s business success, it leads to increased employee productivity and retains and attracts the best employees. Equal Compensation The US labor statics for 2009 shows that women’s median full-time earning is 78. 7% of what men earn. The level of education doesn’t make any differences. The reasons for wage differences are complicated. Part of it has to do with many traditionally male-dominated professions, paying better than female-dominated professions. Part of it has to do that women choose to spend more time with family care than with their careers. But that is not whole story. A study showed that when all things are equal (other than gender), women faculty members get paid less their mail colleagues. Women earn on average 6. 9% less than men in similar situations, when the long careers of male faculty members, the relative productivity of faculty member and where male and female faculty members tend to work are taken in account. Why the difference? 1. 2. Sexism and discrimination Women don’t negotiate better salaries for themselves 7There’s not a lot women can do about sexist employers, but salary negotiations are under their control. These negotiations can be a stumbling block, because women are not well trained to negotiate assertively on their own behalf. But if they do, they may be penalized, particularly if the other negotiator is male. A study observed that men were more inclined to work with nicer and less de manding women who accepted their compensation offers without comment than they were with women who attempted to negotiate for higher compensation. Both women were equaled competent for the job. So that’s the double bind for women: if they don’t ask for a higher salary, they likely won’t receive one, but if they do, they may not be hired or promoted. Talent Management Catalyst, a nonprofit women’s research group, mentioned that only 11 chief executives of Fortune 500 companies are women, down from a peak of 15 in 2010. The McKinsey study showed that 37% of lower-level and middle management are female, while just 26% of vice presidents and other senior manager are women at Fortune 500 companies. McKinsey researchers found that female ambition declines at middle age. About 64% of women ages 45 to 54 old expressed a desire to advance professionally, compared with 78% of the men in the same age range. The comparable figures were 92% and 98% respectively, for women and men aged 23 to 34. The decrease of the desire to advance professionally of middle aged women is caused by their experience of not well fitted Talent Management Systems. Corporations can improve the odds for building diversity in the top management by increasing the number of women who make it from middle management to the vice presidential level. There are several opportunities, which companies can implement: -81. Companies need to spend more time coaching women and offering more leadership training and rotation through various management roles. 2. Companies should watch the women at the middle management level systematically and putting these women in programs that would help them to develop and get the next (promotion) hurdle. 3. Companies should be actively grooming women, making sure they have mentors and actively promoting their careers. 4. The performance of top management should be judged partly on their ability to groom and promote female talent. Conclusion & Recommendations Research has shown that there is a direct correlation between corporate financial performance and having a mix of women and men in senior leadership roles. Statistics show that the number of female college graduates and overall percentage of females in the workforce is increasing. Therefore the pipeline of women has greatly increased and companies have to capitalize on this to ensure these companies are going to retain, attract and develop this pool of talent. To capitalize the women talents, companies need to change their (masculine) corporate culture. In the majority of the companies, female employees don’t have same access to opportunities as their male colleagues. To increase the corporate financial performance, companies need to improve their corporate culture and the equal access to opportunities for both female and male employees. -9Every business and company is different and therefore companies need to found out what the needs are from their (future) female employees. In general, the most important employer characteristics for women are: 1. 2. 3. Opportunity for employees to self manage Emphasis on meeting goals, as opposed to how, when or where people do the work Availability of and focus on career advancement opportunities The work-life balance becomes more important for both female and male employees; due to that the number of women participates in the workforce is increasing. There are several solutions and possibilities which companies can implement to increase the work-life balance: 1. 2. 3. 4. Employees working at home (teleworking) Compressed work week Flextime Job-sharing Besides attract and retain female employees, development of these qualified women is important, because they will ensure the mix of women and men in senior leadership roles. Therefore it is recommended that companies improve their talent management with: 1. Coaching women, offering leadership training and rotations through various management roles 2. Watch the women at middle management level systematically and putting these women in programs that would help them to develop and get the next promotion hurdle . Actively grooming women, making sure that they have mentors and actively promoting their careers – 10 Without equal compensation, women will leave the company or are not interested to start their career with a company. Therefore is important that companies need to make sure that both women and men are equal compensated for the work they do. The final recommendation is more means of putting p ressure on companies. A regulatory back-up, like quotas, forces companies to develop strategies and programs to retain, attract and develop high qualified women, who can enter the boardroom. Unfortunately there is also a down-side of quotas. Companies have to avoid pushing too low qualified women into boardrooms only to meet these quotas. This will harm the qualified women undeserved. An equal balance of qualified men and women can only be achieved when top management focus on what women want in their company, work-life balance, talent management and equal compensation. Therefore the performance of top management should be judged partly on their ability to groom and promote female talent. – 11 References Mathis, Robert L and Jackson, John H (2011). Human Resource Management. South-Western, a part of Cengage Learning Jolis, Anne (2011, May 19). What Women Want. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved May 23, 2011, from http://www. WSJ. com SHRM Online staff (2011, April 26). What Gen Y Women Want: Autonomy and Self-Direction. Society for Human Resource Management. Retrieved May 3, 2011, from http://www. shrm. org Boulton, Leyla (2011, May 10). UK headhunter pledge new focus on gender. Financial Times. Retrieved May 19, 2011, from http://www. ft. com Manzano-Diaz, Sara (2011, May 20). Helping Women Advance in the Workplace. Council on Women and Girls. Retrieved May 25, 2011, from http://www. whitehouse. gov/administration/eop/cwg Peggy (2011, April 12). Equal Pay Day: Why don’t women just ask for more? Retrieved May 25, 2011, from http://www. scientopia. org/blogs/everydaybiology/ Lublin, Joann S, (2011, April 4). Coaching Urged for Women. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved June 14, 2011, from http://www. WSJ. com Prime, Jeanine and Moss-Racusin, Corinne A (2009). Engaging men in gender initiatives: What Change Agents Need To Know. Catalyst Zahidi, Saadia and Ibarra, Herminia (2010). The Corporate Gender Gap Report 2010. World Economic Forum Women in Business Women are becoming more involved in the business world by having well established careers and businesses that are performing very well all over the world. Their businesses are growing and contributing significantly to the economies of their countries. They have been able to develop careers and businesses in areas that were initially regarded as the domain of men. As they enter this environment, they have developed new styles of carrying out business and come up with ways that are different from those that were being used by men in the past. There are various reasons that have inspired the women to start their own businesses and join the male dominated territory. Some of these reasons are derived from the needs that these women have. Financial security and the need to achieve something in their lives are some of these reasons that have inspired the women to come up with various businesses. Other reasons include seeking independence and flexibility to allow then to determine how they want to work and when they want to work. One of the major challenges that women face as they carry out their business is the ability to balance their work and their family. The women face this challenge as they are not able to separate the business side of things and the family side. However, there are various steps that these women can carry out to ensure that they strike a balance between their business work and their family roles. Some of the steps include coming up with a schedule of events and time that can help the women manage their time. They can also talk to their families and make them understand the importance of the jobs and how much it means to them. Their families can then be in a position to respect the business and value it. Developing a work cycle that fits the family life cycle can also help the women to create more opportunities and chances of spending time with their families without affecting the performance of the business. 1. 0 Introduction Women in the recent past have become more involved in business with many of them starting up their own businesses. The rate of women starting their own businesses is increasing with the rate being twice that of the national average. Some of these women have more than a hundred employees in their businesses (Ericksen & Young, 1999). They have been going forward in their ventures and succeeding. These women have been able to prove that the world of business is not only a man’s world. They have gone and succeeded in areas that are considered male territory in business such as real estate, moving, restaurant business among others. The women have also maintained their characteristics and experiences of being mothers, daughters and wives as they carry on business. This paper discusses the experiences of women in business including the entrepreneurs and how they balance their work and family. 2. Women in Business In the past, men have been involved in business establishing rules and structures to be followed in organizations. However more women are getting involved and becoming part of the business world in one way or another. They have been able to enter this male dominated environment and they have been changing the way things are done and making positive contributions to the development of businesses and org anizations. They have introduced new methods and styles of doing things that are very different from the methods were being followed by the men. Most of these women have formed their own businesses which they have developed from their own unique ideas and talents that they possess. In the United States alone, there are more than ten million businesses that have been started by women. These businesses have employed over 13 million people (Gunelius, The Importance of Women-Owned Business Certification, n. d). In 2008, such businesses were able to impact the national and local economies greatly and significantly generating sales of over $1. 9 trillion (Gunelius, n. d). Women have been inspired to work hard in their businesses pushing them to great heights and reaching new levels. These women are persistent and they leave undeniable marks on the economy they impact. Most of these women have made plans and they continue to make plans for the future of their businesses with about 37% of them planning to leave their businesses in the hands of their daughters (Gunelius, Statistics About Women Business Ownders from Center for Women’s Business Research, n. d). This will help ensure that such businesses owned by women will be here to stay. 2. 1 Reasons for Joining Business. There are various factors that make the women to join the world of entrepreneurship and leave their current employment levels. Other women who are merely stay at homes have been driven to start their own businesses. These women have been inspired to start their own business that range in all sorts of industries. Other women have been inspired to start businesses that they are able to operate from home. Some of the women use their professional skills and competencies to start their own businesses while others use their hobbies and talents as the foundation and acquire the skills that are needed. Majority of these women when starting these businesses do not have any business knowledge or background but due to their passion and ambition they are able to succeed. (a) Financial Security There are various reasons that make women get involved in business with some starting their own businesses. Most of these women usually state economic necessity as one of the reasons that they start their own businesses. They start this business as they look for a source of income to make ends meet. The income they get is used to sustain their family and provide for the needs of their family. Financial security is the major driving force for most women who join business starting their own businesses (Lake, Conway, & Whitney, 2005). (b) Flexibility and Independence Most of these women are mothers and they like to work using their own schedules so that they are able to spend more time with their children and family. They then choose the option of starting their own businesses that will allow them to be flexible and juggle their personal lives with their work. Having their own business allows them to freedom and independence to decide when to work and where to work from (Lake, Conway, & Whitney, 2005). Most of the women entrepreneurs choose to work from their homes and just create an office in one of the rooms in their houses. (c) Corporate Glass Ceiling Some women experience a situation where they are not able to proceed further in their careers. Corporate glass ceiling is a situation where certain careers in business cannot exceed a particular level in growth. In that career there are simply no other levels that can be achieved above the current level. Women who experience such a situation end up starting their own businesses that give them more options in their careers and more fulfillments. The women are driven by this inspiration and they become their own boss (DeYoung, n. d). (d) Solving a Problem Some women entrepreneurial spirit is started off by the need to solve a particular problem that they experience and others in the society as well. They then develop a solution to the problem and then make money out of it as they help solve the problem effectively. Some of these women include Julie Clark. She came across a problem of lack of educational videos for small children and from then started to make them for her babies. She later founded a company by name The Baby Einstein that was involved in production of educational videos for young children (DeYoung, n. d). (e) Personal Achievement Some women are driven to start their own business by the desire to achieve some goals or achievements professionally (Lake, Conway, & Whitney, 2005). For most of the women who are driven by this desire, tangibles are not part of their quest. They are driven by perseverance and the desire to achieve something on their won with their own knowledge and abilities and operate a business. From the business they start they are able to achieve and make a significant impact in their lives, their families and the people around them. 2. 2 Challenges Faced In Business Entrepreneurs face several challenges when they are starting off and as the businesses grow. Women however face more challenges and obstacles as they carryout their own business (Gunelius, Challenges Facing Women in Business, n. d). These challenges although they are many they are not able to deter them from carrying out their businesses and becoming successful. They have been able to overcome these challenges and continue growing their businesses. One of these challenges is the lack of equal opportunity in the business environment. (a) Gender Discrimination The business environment has for a very long time been male dominated. It has drawn very clear lines on gender, and these lines have extended in all business areas. There are very few businesses that have been regarded to be for women. Most women when they start of their businesses in areas that were not regarded for them, they face a lot of gender related discrimination (Gunelius, Challenges Facing Women in Business, n. ). This mostly happens to women who are of a different race or color than the men. Studies have shown that more women who are of African American origin are discriminated in the business environment (Lake, Conway, & Whitney, 2005). (b) Family Pressure Some of the women who start of their own businesses they are overwhelmed by the activities that are involved in their bus inesses and they are not able to maintain a balance between their businesses and their families. This is one of the challenges that face women all over the world who are also mothers and have families to take care of. The balance between the business and the family life becomes hard to achieve and in most cases their family life suffers. The family pressures then take a toll on their relationships and their roles as mothers (Gunelius, Challenges Facing Women in Business, n. d). (c) Unequal Opportunities One other challenge that faces many women, who start of their own businesses especially in an area that is highly dominated by men, is the lack of opportunities that are equal (Gunelius, Challenges Facing Women in Business, n. d). They face these challenges as they carry out their daily business activities and seek funds for their businesses. These challenges interfere with their businesses and they are not able to move and grow as expected. Studies have shown that most women do not receive equal opportunities in the business environment especially in financial institutions with over 67% of them reporting difficulties when accessing funds (â€Å"Women Entreprenuers,† n. d). 3. 0 Work/Family Balance As women become more involved in the business environment developing their businesses, they are constantly faced with the challenge of managing their time properly between their business and their family. They are constantly seeking ways to manage and balance these two important sides of their life. Entrepreneurship on its own enables the women to manage their time and develop schedules that suit their life and their families as well (Women entrepreneurs, n. d). They are able to attend to family matters and other family activities and still be able to carryout their businesses. The flexibility and independence allows to allocate more time when need be to the family in various stages of her life and make up for any time lost with her family. 0% of most of the working women are driven to start their own businesses in order to enjoy this flexibility and independence (Business Women and Challenges of Work, Family, n. d). Even though the women entrepreneurs have the freedom to be flexible and spend time with their families some are not able to balance the two. There are various steps that women can follow to ensure that they are able to balance their lives and manage their time properly be tween their work and their life and hence create a balance. 3. 1 Developing a Mindset and Keeping Perspective. The women who have difficulty managing their time properly and balancing their family life and work should be able to keep a proper perspective and mindset. They should stay focused in their relationships in their family as they are valuable aspects of their life. The relationships should be maintained at all times and decisions made should be able to maintain them. These relationships are very important as they are the sources of happiness and they influence how the work is done and the quality that is maintained (Ericksen & Young, 1999). The perspective and mind set taken should put this relationships first and the business second. Businesses and work should be seen as ways of supporting the relationships. This mindset when grounded can help in the decision making process and ensure that the decision s that are made focus on maintaining these relationships above all else. Work should also be treated with respect and the family should also be advised to respect the business time and value it. The women should show the families the importance of the work and what it means to them. They should also strive to do everything they can to make the work succeed. When they treat the work with a lot of respect and value the families are also able to see this and they in turn develop the same respect and value in that business (Isidro, 2010). 3. 2 Developing a Schedule A schedule can be made that can help the women to manage the time effectively. The schedule when followed can help the women to allocate enough time for the family and the business and avoid conflicts. Regular working hours can be established and maintained and any unexpected occurrence of events can be handled carefully and time compensated appropriately (Isidro, 2010). The schedule can also include frequent time breaks for the women to spend some time with the children during those breaks. The breaks can be used as a way of relaxing and spending time with the family and giving them undivided attention at this time. A schedule can also be made for the family vacations and weekends. Some women find it difficult to work when their families are at home during the summer and other holidays. Therefore a schedule can be made to include the time the family should take vacations and holidays together. The family can be involved in the making of the schedule to ensure that they are able to understand the importance of the vacation and the impact it has on the business (Business Women and Challenges of Work, Family, n. d). They will be able to offer their support and allow the women to work undisturbed and respect the working hours. 3. 3 Outsourcing and Delegating Women should not see themselves as super heroes and tend to take on all the activities of the business on their own. They can allocate some of the activities and tasks to some of the employees they can trust and then handle the more complex tasks. They can also outsource some of the work from other businesses to be able to save on time to spend with their families. They can stick to accomplishing only what they need to do on their own to ensure that the business remains productive. The faster they do their work the more time they have with their families. Getting a personal assistant when the business activities increase can allow them to spend more time with their families and still be able to make the businesses successful. Through networking the women can be able to identify other businesses that can be able to handle some of the activities of their business and outsource it to them (Lake, Conway, & Whitney, 2005). 3. 4 Being Fit and Healthy A woman managing her own business should strive to keep herself healthy and fit to ensure that she is able to carry out the business and the family as well. She should stay healthy and take good care of herself in a way that she is able to take care of her family. If she is able to take care of herself then she will be more likely to be in a position to take care of her family. When working she should only take up jobs that do not strain her mentally and physically. Once she feels that she is almost burning out she should relax and take a break. Prioritizing her activities and tasks should help her deal with only what is important. She should also learn to say no in certain circumstances and avoid feeling guilty when she says no. She should just strive to do her best and deal with her life one day at a time. She can also join support groups that can help her deal with some of the issues in her business. Such support groups can be identified through networks both in the community and online (Isidro, 2010). . 5 Match the Life Cycle and the Business Cycle Women entrepreneurs can seek to match the work cycle with that of the family in order to spend more time with them. They should not be in a hurry to accomplish so much in their business and forget their families (Gunelius, Challenges Facing Women in Business, n. d). They should instead work hard where they ca n and use the slow road since it will still get them there. They should also be gentle with themselves and come up with ways that will allow them to spend time with their families. The women can for example wake up early enough and perform some of the work that is needed urgently in order to ensure that they are able to spend some time with their family during breakfast. They can also use the weekend to recover some of the time that is lost during the week as they also take a break. Another way to ensure that she is able to spend more time with the children is to work late at night when the children are asleep and it is quiet since they are able to concentrate more and accomplish more tasks then. During the day they can then spend the time with their children and play with them. The women can also avoid answering phone calls when they are spending time with their families or replying to email. When they are with their families they can switch off their mobile phones to avoid interrupting the time they are spending with their families (Isidro, 2010). 3. 6 Family’s Commitment The family should be made to understand the importance of the business and how it is operated. Making them understand will ensure that they are supportive and committed to ensure that it is successful. It is important to teach them and let them know how the business is doing, whether the money is tight and when it is doing well. They can help and come up with ideas that can be used to improve and make it better and offer moral support when things are not going well (â€Å"Women entrepreneurs,† n. d). The women should also consider the needs of their families and support them when they need the support (Isidro, 2010). Some of the needs of the family can be handled at a later time while others need urgent attention. Women should be able to identify some of the needs that are urgent and handle them immediately. Several minutes can be used to solve a problem and avoid severe consequences. The several minutes can also portray concern to the family and the issue at hand. This is importantly helpful as it helps strengthen the family relationships. Constant communication with the family should help the women identify issues that are affecting the family and the needs that they are going through. 4. 0 Conclusion Women are becoming more involved in the business environment and performing very well. They have opened up their own businesses out of ideas they have developed. From these ideas they have been able to generate a lot of money for the national economies and contributed significantly to the society. Their businesses are driven by the need to help and the desires and passion of these women. Despite the challenges the women have faced that are unique to the business environment, they have been able to overcome them through perseverance and a lot of hard work. The women who have made it are able to inspire and motivate the other women to come up and develop their own businesses and succeed. They have also become role models in their society and all over the world through their achievements and successes.